Filed under: Developer, Features, Linux, Open Source

In many ways, I'm pretty old school. When I learned HTML, I painstakingly handcoded my pages in the esteemed Notepad. Only when I became a master of HTML-fu did I allow myself to try Dreamweaver. (Okay, fine, the ability to buy a license with educational pricing may have had a lot to do with it, too.)

I loved Dreamweaver. One of the things that always made me a little sad when I first tried Linux was that there wasn't a real Dreamweaver-esque type application. Times have changed, however. There are a number of HTML/web development applications out there that are free (as in speech and beer) and feature filled.

But I'd be really amiss if I just mentioned Linux HTML editors in a vacuum. There are a number of tools readily available in repositories that make coding, layout, uploading, and testing easy and (dare I say it) fun.

Because seriously, if it isn't fun, what's the point?

Over the next few weeks we're going to take a look at web development tools in Linux. We'll do a run down of some popular XHTML/HTML editors, FTP and transfer software, and neat little tools for creating content that make some of the drudgery of "back-end" web work less painful.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Linux web tools and HTML editors, Pt. 1

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Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Mozilla, Freeware

While Greasemonkey, the popular extension for changing the way websites display, might not be currently available via the Firefox 3 addons manager or the Mozilla addons website, you can indeed install a working version from the developer's site. We installed the greasemonkey-0.8.20080609.0.xpi into Firefox 3 RC2 on Mac OS 10.5, and our scripts worked like a charm.

In case you're new to the Greasemonkey realm, here are three scripts to get you going:

• Gmail 2.0 Multiple HTML Signatures - allows you to maintain a set of HTML signatures for Gmail that are automatically changed when you select different "From" addresses in your compose mail window. Alternatively, you could use a bookmarklet.
• Digg Add Mirrors - adds links to Coral Cache, Duggmirror, Duggback, and Google Cache to Digg stories.
• Image Host Redirector - redirects image links directly to image instead of intermediate image host page.

[via gHacks]

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Filed under: Internet, Video

The American dream is alive and well -- on the internet. Whether you truly believe that anyone can grow up to be president, it's absolutely true that anyone can plaster their name on a couple of web sites and call themselves a candidate. If you're looking for a slightly more professional look, check out News3Online, a fake news website where you can create a video like the one above.

You can fill in your own information or play a little practical joke on a friend by changing the name. The whole thing is really just a viral marketing tool from the makers of PalTalk, an online chatroom service. But as viral marketing tools go, it's pretty fun, if not entirely original. Showtime created a similar fill-in-the-blanks style video to promote the TV show Dexter last year.

[via Calacanis.com]

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Filed under: E-mail

Want a custom email address that looks a bit more professional than username@yahoo.com? Email service provider Mail.com provides users with a chance to pick from dozens of available domain names. That means you can get a free email account like user@techie.com, user@tokyo.com, user@doctor.com, or of course, user@mail.com.

You can choose from a number of categories, like top choices, academic, cities, countries, hobbies, jobs, locations, and miscellaneous.

Once you sign up for a free account, you get 3GB of storage, an address book, and calendar. In theory, if you don't like the Mail.com email service, you could just forward all of your email to your email provider of choice. But there's a catch. Free accounts don't support forwarding. If you pony up $3.95/month or $29.99/year you can get a get a premium account with unlimited storage and email forwarding.

[via TechnoSpot]

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Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Web services, Google

For some baffling reason, Gmail still doesn't officially support HTML signatures. In other words, you can't add links, graphics, or adjust your fonts.

There are a handful of Greasemonkey scripts that add support for HTML signatures, and the latest version of Better Gmail also lets you create HTML signatures without installing Greasemonkey. But what if you don't want your signature to show up on every single message? Or what if you want to create multiple signatures that you can use in different situations?

GeekFG has developed a web service that lets you create and HTML signature and then save it as a browser bookmarklet. All you have to do is click on the bookmarklet when composing a Gmail message in Firefox or Internet Explorer and your signature will be added.

This utility comes from the same guy who brought us DomainFinder, a web service that lets you break up any word or phrase into possible domain names like downlo.ad/squad or downloadsq.ua/d.

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

NirSoft has released an updated version of CleanAfterMe, a free Windows system cleaning utility. The program lets you select from a list of locations where Windows tends to store a ton of files. Cleaning these files out can both free up some disk space and protect your privacy, since you can delete things like your browser history, cookies, and recend documents folders.

Version 1.10 adds support for Firefox and Opera web browsers, meaning you can clear your browser history, cookies, cache, download history, and other files. The latest verison also features a resizable dialog box and support for cleaning the last logged-on user name.

The program is portable, which means you can throw it on a USB flash drive and run it on any Windows system. You can also show a cleaning report before actually running the cleaner, which lets you see if you're about to delete anything you might want to hang onto.

If you're looking for a cleaner with a few more features, we'd recommend checking out CCleaner. It does pretty much everything CleanAfterMe does and then some, and also runs a bit more quickly. But unlike CleanAfterMe, CCleaner is not portable, which means you have to install the application before you can use it.

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Apple, Commercial, web 2.0

Apple is launching a new service called MobileMe that will provide push mail, contacts, and calendar data. In practical terms, that means you can synchronize your personal data across multiple computers and devices. And the service works with both Windows and OS X.

In other words, you can synchronize your Mac, PC, and iPhone. The service works with Mac's Mail.app, iCal, and Address book. On Windows, the service syncs with Outlook. In addition to PIM data, you can use MobileMe to syncrhonize photos from your iPhone.

Apple's Phil Schiller demonstrated the new service at WWDC this morning, showing you email gets pushed to all devices in a matter of seconds. There are also web based versions of the applications that look like desktop apps, including a photo application that looks like iPhoto.

The service will replace .Mac, and current .Mac users will automatically be upgraded to MobileMe. For new customers, the service will cost $99 per year for 20GB of online storage. There's a 60 day free trial available as well. MobileMe isn't live yet, but will be available at Me.com soon.

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Filed under: Internet, Security, Utilities, Windows, Microsoft

Not really.

Forgetting your password to Yahoo!, Gmail, Twitter, Hotornot, or "other" sites can be downright annoying and maddening. It's not a cute situation at all.

But now it might be with the software Cute Password Manager.

For some reason, we end up with 12 different passwords for 25 different sites. It never fails. So a password manager is nothing new.

What does Cute offer that's different? Well let's take a look:

• AutoSaving passwords in your browser saves time. Firefox and others has this built in, but it's nice to have something outside of the browser in case it crashes and dies.
  
• Cute will generate really strong passwords for you to manage. So you could unify all of your passwords with one that's solid. And you don't have to remember it.
  
• Encrypt passwords and personal data using AES.
• Info is stored on your PC only (No Macs though...boooooo)
• Backup & Restore, Print your passwords.
• Fights Phishing by filling passwords only on matching web sites.
• Imports & Exports your passwords with text and csv format file.

Our main question is, is there a password to get to the password manager (yes, actually there is a master password)? And if you forget it, do you need a password manager for that?

Exhausting.

Also, how secure is this if you have more than one person using your computer? There might be certain sites you don't want your um significant other um...discovering?

But hey, that's on you.

Don't get too cute, but feel free to save some brain space by flushing out your internal memory cache. It's free, so give it a try and let us know what you think!

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Time-Wasters, web 2.0

So a tipster sent this new site to us, 1337orNot.com.

And it seems ridiculously goofy.

That's why it caught our eye.

In the geekiest and most honest and most tried and true tradition on the internet, our peers decide whats cool and whats not with a simple vote.

1337orNot.com will tell you if you're well...1337 or Not.

By uploading your own photo you are clearly Not.

But if you have to get up on there, just make it not so obvious, kthxbai?

HotOrNot.com blew up with this format, but for obvious OTHER reasons. Does 1337orNot.com have a shot? Well, you decide and let us know.

Upload your 1337est (is that even a word? ah it's the interwebs, nevermind) friends' photos and let people vote. Maybe you'll pop up there as well.

1337 us know (get it?) how you rank.

thanks Bobby!

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Security, Mozilla, Freeware, Browser Tips, web 2.0

Have you ever accidentally visited MySpace? Yeah, we probably have too, though, it was never a noticeable problem. In fact, we can't even remember it happening, but it seems like it has to have happened... right?

Well, this Firefox add-on promises to detect MySpace in Firefox, and provide a pop-up menu to stop unsuspecting web-browsers from hitting up the social network. The plug-in is obviously a joke, but we found a great use for it anyway -- avoiding phishing.

It's called AmIOnMySpace.com? and it can be used to detect the real MySpace site. If for any reason the message doesn't pop-up upon first visiting the social network, you're not on the real site. The biggest problem with using this as a way of avoiding phishing sites is that it doesn't alert users when leaving MySpace, so it's still possible to get attacked from within.

[via Digg]

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